In the Air News

ORE FLIGHTS THAN EVER BEFORE JetBlue will JetBlue will serve the Caribbean region this winter with an average of 200 daily flights. In addition to its own network growth, JetBlue also announces the signing of two new interline agreements with LIAT and Seaborne Airlines, and a growth of its partnership with Cape Air. Five new Caribbean routes will launch in the coming months, including service to two new destinations: Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. JetBlue will deploy its brand new Airbus A321 aircraft to a variety of Caribbean destinations and will offer even more frequencies between New York (JFK) and Barbados during peak holiday times, including President’s Day and Easter. www.JetBlue.com

KLM and KENYA AIR - JOINT VENTUREKLM Royal Dutch Airlines has expanded its cooperation with Kenya Airways within East Africa, following the signing of a joint venture agreement. Effective from January 1, 2014, four new routes will be added, thus increasing the total KLM - Kenya Airways joint venture to a total of six routes. Kenya Airways and KLM operate daily service between Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. The airlines jointly operate 19 weekly return flights between The Netherlands, France and Kenya. The cooperation will be expanded through the addition of the London - Nairobi; Amsterdam -Entebbe/ Kigali route; Amsterdam - Lusaka and Harare routes; and the Amsterdam-Kilimanjaro/Dar-es-Salam route, the latter subject to regulatory approval.

DELTA TO THE USVIThis month, the U.S. Virgin Islands will start benefiting from more flights out of the New York and Atlanta gateways. Daily flights from JFK in NY to Cyril E. King International Airport on St. Thomas will debut from December 15, 2013 to March 30, 2014. Delta will return in the summer to continue the daily New York service from July 1 to September 2, 2014. In addition, this winter Delta will serve St. Thomas with twice daily flights from Atlanta’s Hartfield Jackson International Airport, and add a third Saturday service, representing a total of 15 flights per week from the Atlanta market. www.delta.com

NEW SCHEDULEDelta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways have a new schedule that starts March 30, 2014, combining their slots at London Heathrow to offer maximum customer convenience, particularly for business travelers. Beginning, April 2, 2014, Delta will move its arrival and departure terminal for several important business markets to join Virgin Atlantic in Heathrow Terminal 3. This includes its LHR to JFK, LHR to BOS, and new LHR to SEA services and the two airlines will co-locate on all NY and BOS flights to LHR. Delta, in co-operation with Virgin Atlantic, will also operate a second daily service between LHR and DTW effective June 2, 2014. This flight will complement Delta’s previously announced West Coast route between SEA and LHR, launching on March 30, 2014. Virgin Atlantic is also moving its VS1 Heathrow to EWR service from a late afternoon departure to a morning departure.

NEW FLIGHTThe Los Cabos Tourism Board announced plans to welcome a new direct flight from NY’s JFK airport to San Jose del Cabo (SJD) airport via Aeromexico. The new Aeromexico flight, officially launching on January 18, will run non-stop from New York to Los Cabos once per week. The flight will depart JFK on Saturdays at 7:00am EST arriving in Los Cabos by 10:50am MST and departs SJD at 11:50am MST arriving back at JFK at 7:40pm EST. www.aeromexico.com

90th anniversary November 1, 2013 marked Finnair’s 90th anniversary. Established in 1923, Finnair is the world’s fifth-oldest airline still in operation. Finnair specializes in flights between Europe and Asia, offering direct connections from Helsinki to over 60 European destinations and 13 Asian destinations. Over eight million passengers per year fly on Finnair’s modern Airbus fleet. Finnair became the first airline to take delivery of the new Airbus 321 Sharklet aircraft in September and is also installing new, fully reclining seats in most of its long-haul fleet beginning January 2014. www.finnair.com

NEW equipment Ethiopian Airlines took delivery of the first of four Boeing 777-300ERs on November 7, 2013. These are the largest aircraft in the airline’s fleet with a nearly 400-passenger capacity. The aircraft will operate in Guangzhou; Washington, D.C.; Dubai and Luanda. It is scheduled to serve the Addis Ababa - Luanda route three times a week and three times a week on the Addis Ababa - Guangzhou route. Service to IAD will commence in June 2014. The aircraft will feature 34 business class seats and 365 in economy. Ethiopian will phase in three additional B777-300ERs in January 2014, May 2014 and June 2015. www.flyethiopian.com